Finance expert shares £28m West Brom loan reveal, ‘fans are up in arms’
West Brom will have to pay back around £28million to MSD Holdings after it was confirmed the club had taken out a £20million last week, according to Kieran Maguire.
As reported by The Athletic on 29 December, Albion have secured a huge loan from the British arm of US tech tycoon Michael Dell’s investment company, who have previously loaned cash to Derby, Sunderland and Burnley.
It is a four-year loan “secured against all Group assets” and “will be used to finance the general business operations of the football club”.
Football finance expert Maguire can’t see why the club would loan such an enormous amount of cash for what they’re claiming it’s for and has warned fans that the total loss on the loan could be around £8million.
“We’re not told the interest rate but I’m anticipating somewhere around about 10 per cent, if previous loans are anything to go by,” said Maguire, speaking on the latest episode of The Price of Football podcast (5 January, 2m10s).
“Therefore, they’re going to have to pay back four years’ worth of interest, plus capital. You’re talking £28million.
“So why are they borrowing?
“It appears to be just for day-to-day activities, which isn’t good. You don’t borrow from a bank for short-term financial commitments – you wouldn’t take out a mortgage to buy your groceries or your electricity bill.
“It just doesn’t sound great so I think the fans are up in arms about that.”
Shine a light
We’ve seen a lot of criticism of Action For Albion’s planned protests against the ownership of West Brom.
Some fans have been saying how ‘shining a light’ in the stadium won’t do anything, nor will holding up white pieces of paper.
But the issues at West Brom have now been relayed by major newspapers, by Jeff Stelling on Sky Sports News and by the BBC.
Thousands of fans turned up on Halfords Lane after the win over Reading to show their anger towards Guochuan Lai’s leadership of the Black Country club.
It’s pretty clear that starting somewhere, by shining a light in matches, has gained traction to a point where fans are gathering en masse to protest against the Chinese ownership.
Lai – or whoever else is pulling the strings in the Far East – is responsible for rolling the dice on the very existence of West Bromwich Albion Football Club in a bid of what seems like sheer desperation to get back into the Premier League.
The Hawthorns is now at risk. Our home.
It’s time for these protests to ramp up even more.
In other West Brom news, Albion are trying to sign this Brighton player on loan.